Jerry Sandusky Trial: Defense Attorney Requests Dismissal of Charges

With just a couple of weeks until Jerry Sandusky is expected to go on trial following allegations of sex abuse, his attorney has asked for the charges against the former Penn State football coach to get dropped, according to Sara Ganim of The Patriot-News.

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#Sandusky attorney filed a new request for charges to be dismissed. We're about three weeks from trial. Judge still hasn't ruled on a delay.

— Sara Ganim (@sganim) May 16, 2012"

Sandusky's legal team, led by attorney Joe Amendola, previously requested the charges get dismissed back in March. The judge denied that attempt last month, but said another request would be allowed after more evidence was brought to the table.

Last week, Amendola made a request for the trial to get moved back so he had more time to prepare the defense's case. As mentioned in Ganim's tweet, no decision has been made as to whether or not that will be granted.

As it stands now, the Sandusky trail is still set to begin on June 5. He faces 52 counts of child sex abuse, but Amendola believes more time should be granted so that he can examine the mountain of evidence the prosecution plans to present in court.

It's impossible to know if Amendola really believes the charges will actually be dismissed or if the extra time will really help build a better defense. The motions could simply be a way to delay the trial for as long as they can.

Public opinion on Sandusky has already been set in stone, so trying to put some distance between the initial outrage and the trial would seemingly benefit the defense. That said, the verdict will ultimately be decided by the level of evidence prosecutors present.

Since there isn't much time before the trial date, final decisions on the delay and charge dismissal will have to come down in the next few weeks.